2 Corinthians 11:1–9

Verse 1. My folly. So he calls his reciting his own praises, which commonly speaking, is looked upon as a piece of folly and vanity; though the apostle was constrained to do it, for the good of the souls committed to his charge. Challoner.

Verse 2. With the jealousy of God, or that came from God: it may also signify a great, or godly jealousy.—To present you, that is, the Church of Corinth, a chaste virgin to Christ, as the whole Catholic Church is called the chaste spouse of Christ. See Matthew 9:13. Revelation 21:2. Witham.—I cannot suffer these false prophets thus to destroy what has been prepared with so much labour, but I am not jealous for my own sake; it is for the honour of God; for I do not wish to prepare this spouse for myself, but for God. Tirinus.—It is a duty incumbent on me to preserve you in the purity of the faith you have received, to present you to him as a virgin, holy, and free from every spot or blemish, and hence arise my fear and solicitude, lest by insinuating and designing men, you suffer yourselves to be drawn away from the simplicity of your faith in Christ Jesus, the Lord.

Verse 3. So your minds shall be corrupted by those false teachers, from the simplicity in Christ, from the sincerity and purity of the gospel doctrine. Witham.

Verse 4. You might well bear with him. These new teachers pretended at least to preach only the doctrine of Christ. Saint Paul tells them, they might in some measure be excused, if they preached a new doctrine, or another gospel that brought them greater blessings, or another Spirit accompanied with greater spiritual gifts, than they had already received by his preaching. But I think, and may say, I have nothing less than the greatest apostles, and you have received the same blessings from me, as others from them. Witham.

Verse 5. For I suppose. Many understand this as spoken ironically, and alluding to the false apostles, who called themselves great. But it ought rather to be understood in a literal sense, that God had performed as many and great miracles by his hands, as by any of the apostles. Saint Paul here wishes to refute those who called themselves the disciples of Peter, and other apostles. Calmet.

Verse 6. Though I be rude in speech, (as S. Jerom also thought) in my expressions in the Greek tongue, yet not in knowledge, the chief or only thing to be regarded. Nay, Saint Paul’s adversaries acknowledged that his letters were weighty and strong. chapter 10 verse 11. Saint John Chrysostom in many places, and Saint Augustine l. iv. de Doct. Christiana, c. vi. and vii. tom. 3. p. 68. and seq. shews at large the solid rhetoric and eloquence of Saint Paul, even in this and the next chapter. Witham.

Verse 7. Did I commit a fault? and so forth It is a kind of reproach to them, and by the figure, called irony, with a reflection on the false preachers, who some way or other, got themselves handsomely maintained, while Saint Paul neither took, nor would take any thing of them, that his adversaries might not have an occasion to say, he did as they did, or that they only did as he did. And lest they should suspect that he would receive nothing from them, because he did not love them (as men sometimes refuse presents from those whom they do not love) he appeals to God, how much he loves them. But he will have this to boast of against his adversaries, those false apostles and crafty labourers, who cunningly endeavoured to transform themselves, that they might be thought the apostles of Christ, insinuating themselves into their favour, and receiving at least presents from them, which Saint Paul would not do, though it was but reasonable that he should live by the gospel. See 1 Cor. chapter 9. Witham.